Dream a Little Dream With Me

I have an affinity for inspirational quotes and sayings, and I have a list of favorites that grows on a daily basis thanks to social media. This afternoon, I came across the following quote, “Tell everyone what you want to do, and someone will want to help you do it”, by H. Clement Stone. It really spoke to me, so, I decided to share it on both Twitter and Facebook. At the end of the quote, I added my own words, “I want to be a professional writer/blogger”, and doing this one seemingly simple gesture proved to be the best thing I did for myself today.

My personal statement is not at all profound, but it is very significant. This was the first time that I had stated in no uncertain terms to my family and friends alike that my dream is to write professionally, and to share this dream publicly left me feeling a bit exposed and vulnerable. I am not quite sure why I chose this afternoon to put my dream on public display, except that almost as soon as I read H. Clement Stone’s quote, my intuition said that I needed to share both the quote and my dream. So, I followed my gut, and I am so glad that I did, as the support, encouragement, and advice I have received from others have been most welcomed and appreciated. I may not know every single detail as to how I am going to accomplish my goal right now, but I have no doubt that I will, especially with such an incredible support system in place. Along these same lines, while I am open to constructive feedback, I have no room in my life for those who do not believe in me or my dreams. I am guarding and nurturing this dream, and I am on my way to making it come true.

As for what I did for someone else today, I was able to make my younger daughter’s simple wish come true. Since I had been sick most of the week and since my older daughter was still not feeling well last night, my younger daughter feared that I would miss her basketball game this morning, due to my older daughter and/or me still being under the weather. Thankfully, we were both feeling much better, and when I arrived at the basketball game, my younger daughter’s big smile spoke volumes. It would have been easy to beg off attending this grade school game, in order to rest or to catch up on work, but I knew that being there to watch her play and to cheer for her and her teammates mattered more than anything that I could possibly do for anyone else. After the game, she hugged me and said, “I am so happy you were here, Mama.” I was more than glad to be there, too, and it was yet another confirmation that my time and attention mean more than material goods to my daughters. It was nice to be able to do this for her, and it felt just as nice to know that my presence was wanted and appreciated. A true win-win, which is what I am finding to be true whenever I do something to make a positive difference for someone other than myself.